Olzvoi
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990219
Name: Olzvoi
Parent's name: Nasan
Ovog: Olhnuud
Sex: m
Year of Birth: 1930
Ethnicity: Halh
Additional Information
Education: higher
Notes on education:
Work: retired, teacher
Belief: none
Born in: Darvi sum, Hovd aimag
Lives in: Sühbaatar sum (or part of UB), Ulaanbaatar aimag
Mother's profession: herder
Father's profession: herder
Themes for this interview are:
(Please click on a theme to see more interviews on that topic)
work
education / cultural production
childhood
family
travel
Alternative keywords suggested by readers for this interview are: (Please click on a keyword to see more interviews, if any, on that topic)
childhood
schoolchildren's life
secondary school
intelligentsia
teacher
movies
plays
To read a full interview with Olzvoi please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 090328A with Olzvoi
I was born in 1930 in Darvi sum of Hovd aimag. I went to elementary school at the age of 11 and at 15 went to the Hovd aimag secondary school. After completing the seventh grade I became an elementary school teacher and worked for six years. In 1954 I came to the city and studied at the Teacher’s Institute for three years. After graduation, I taught for two years in the teachers’ school of Dornod aimag but then it was closed and merged with the Ulaanbaatar teachers’ school. The students had been enrolled there but there were no vacancies for the teachers, so they didn’t take me. For some time there was no work for me, and in 1960 I was appointed to work in the secondary school Number One. Then, the headmaster of the school told me, “Only those teachers who graduated from the University should teach in our school”. Therefore, while teaching at the school I trained myself and in 1966 I entered the Teachers’ Institute and graduated from it. Then, the education department called me and said, “Go to the 33rd school as a headmaster. I worked there for two years in 1967, 1968 and then went back the Secondary School Number One.. Then in 1978 I was told to go to School Number Two as a headmaster and I worked there for three years. Then I returned back to school number one and worked there. Since then I worked there until I retired in 1995s.
My elementary class teachers used to take us on a lot of trips to the outdoors. Seeing the teachers I thought of becoming a teacher like them. When I was small, a child of a rich person with a lot of livestock didn’t go to school, under the pretext that there was a lack of people to tend the livestock. The children in school didn’t like to study and they often escaped from the school. The teachers insisted the children return to the school and be taught.
During the war-time [World War II] things were scarce and we used to write on a torn paper with a split pencil and a lead. I used to ride a foal for 18 km in order to study. The families of the children who lived in the school dormitory supplied meat and firewood.
The main subjects were Mongolian language, math and natural science. In secondary school we had plenty of homework, such as to collect plant seeds, squirrel skins, marmot skins. Since childhood I had acquired knowledge of the natural sciences. When I was at the Teacher’s Institute we went to places with beautiful nature during the summer practical work. We studied plants and animals, learned to plant vegetables, made soap from fat and the like through a chemical process. I taught myself Russian, and I visited places with beautiful nature, drawing maps and taking notes. I acquired a lot of knowledge.
The teaching standards were well-observed till 1980-1990. They taught career education. The textbooks that had been approved by the Pedagogical Institute or the Ministry were used and followed. The teachers were well supported and the state gave much thought to how school buildings were constructed. Even the Central Committee issued a decree on strengthening the relationship between school and life and enhancing people’s education. The children were taken to the trips to china and ceramics factories, the carpet and the soap factories. The children of that time also learned from the movies and plays not to do incorrect things.
